Chennai suburban resident helps teach needy kids


Chennai: In an effort to bring about a holistic development among children, Chrompet resident Vijayalakshmi in the city suburb has been offering free tuition classes.

News Today gets into a candid chat with her.

“I have been offering coaching for the last three years on all subjects for students from classes one to eight and also to emphasise on cultural values and sports,” says Vijayalakshmi, who resides at Shankar Nagar.

On what got her started, she says, “There have been several instances where I have seen students of class five who were not able to recite even a simple Mathematical table. When I wanted to find out the reason, I understood that they were not given enough attention in classes or their parents were illiterate. All these incidents spurred me to start classes under the banner of Samskara Kendra, a service unit of Vivekananda Vidyalaya.”

To give individual attention, she has kept the strength limited. Her family has been a pillar of strength to keep her motivated, as her daughter Subasree chips in for teaching Hindi, while her husband Saravanan trains the children in physical activities every morning.

“We have also been distributing stationery products and notebooks free of cost,” she says.

Talking about the difficulties, she states, “The children, right from beginning, have been showing signs of hostility to learn. To tackle it, I framed my own teaching methodology by taking inputs from the internet and teaching them in a musical way. It has been effective as the students have also scored well in their recent exams.”

In addition to teaching and training in sports, the family also arranges for tours yearly twice, free of cost, predominantly in the city, to places such as Marina beach, Birla Planetarium, Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur etc.

“The Seva Bharathi backs the team by providing transportation and other things,” she notes, adding that her aim is to take education to children of the lower strata.

Vijayalakshmi offers classes at No. 22A, First Street, Shankar Nagar in the locality and can be reached at 9677251589 and 9444558369.